Just announced at ITEXPO: The NGN Forum and IMS Forum have merged and will also have an associated STP Forum and Diameter Forum. As you may know, these are key elements to provide applications and services to residential and business customers.

This means the IMS Plugfest is now not just IMS-based but will also focus on the following architechtures as well: STP, Diameter and IP OSS/BSS.

The new name of the furum will be the NGN Forum and Michael Khalilian will be the Chairman and President for the next three years.

There are now over 2,500 participants between the different forums with weekly additions to the technical working group comittee -- working on business development, marketing, technology and standards.

The focul point of the NGN forum is IP, IP structure, framework, architechture and best practices. The objective of this group is to ensure interoperability of new revenue generating services via things like plugfests. As you may be aware, TMC's IMS and UC Magazines are sponsor of these plugfests and the next one is January 12th, 2009 in New Hamphsihre -- at the UNH-IOL (interoperability lab)

Expect the news of the new boards of directors to come out in the next few weeks.

I just came across an article by Richard Zippy Grigonis regarding the success of ITEXPO in light of the incredible competition over the years. Reading it, reminded me of shows of the past which I enjoyed going to. Zippy -- as many of you know is about the straightest-shooter there is -- he tells it as it is -- from his vantage point of course.

This is what makes his thoughts are all the more incredible (and humbling) -- and Zippy -- you are part of the team that allows ITEXPO and TMC in general to flourish. Of course while i am in thanking mode -- getting ready to head out to LA for ITEXPO myself -- let me extend a hearty thanks to the entire TMC team, our advertisers, sponsors, exhibitors and partners who have allowed TMC to keep growing.

I look forward to seeing you all and thanking you in person this week.

You know what? I was looking at Tom Keating's blog today and there is some good stuff worth sharing. First he points to an Om Malik interview of Josh Silverman the CEO of Skype and then reminds us of how to get Skype to run on an iPhone (sort-of) until Skype releases an official version.

The interview is great -- it shows Skype is laser-focused on profit, mobility and embedding itself into other applications. Malik pushed Silverman on a few fronts -- explaining that the telcos aren't a monopoly (contradicting my thoughts and those of Silverman) -- he also pushed Silverman on why they are still part of eBay and finally on why Skype is boring.

On a recent call with Jim Machi, Senior Vice President Marketing Dialogic Inc.I had a chance to ask a number of questions regarding his company's pending acquisition of the platform division of NMS. The deal is subject to shareholder approval and comes a few weeks after NMS received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq exchange due to the company's stock price being under $1 for more than 30 days in a row.

Machi tells me the deal will allow the two companies to pool resources and as a result they should be able to get products out to the market faster than ever. He further cited the video and mobile value-added spaces as other areas where the companies will be able to compete more effectively as a standalone entity.

I asked Machi about the geographical ramifications of this deal and whether there are complimentary areas of the world which NMS brings to the table. According to Jim, Dialogic is very strong worldwide so this was not a reason for this acquisition.

I asked if the deal has been on the works for a long time and Machi commented it was a normal amount of based on prior acquisitions.

NMS Communications signed a definitive agreement to sell its NMS Communications Platforms business to Dialogic for $28 million in cash. This is a significant deal as it shows just how little value the platforms division has and it further marks a turning point in a rivalry which has been legendary for the past few decades.

Why the low price? Simply stated, Moore's Law which has in the past few years made it possible for Intel CPUs to do much of the DSP work which once required separate processors.

In the nineties, the fight for share between Dialogic and NMS was incredible and seemed to transcend business to become personal in many cases. It was a real slug fest and shows like CTI Expo, Internet Telephony and the Computer Telephony event were where these companies would traditionally try to outdo one another.

More recently however under the leadership of Nick Jensen, Dialogic has been much less of an in-your-face competitor and as such, deals like the purchase of Cantata and now this one have been made possible.

NMS for its part will become LiveWire Mobile -- the name of the company's subsidiary which focuses on providing ring tones and videos to mobile devices.

John Savageau one of the hardest working people I know in the carrier hotel/data center business was just promoted to CTO of CRG West where he will get to focus more on the company's peering and ICT offerings. Perhaps no one is more deserving of a promotion.

John has been an instrumental part of CRG West's expansion from two to eleven data centers and John is a true thought leader in the space. In my many discussions with Savageau, he has explained in intricate detail what separates his data centers from the run of the mill and brimmed with pride when he gave me a tour of the company's famous One Wilshire building which is located literally a few blocks from where ITEXPO will be held next week in Los Angeles.

John was a career US Air Force officer and when you speak with him you get the sense of his military background. There is just something about the precision in the way he speaks.

Many people take for granted that interconnections in facilities like the ones John manages are responsible for supplying entire countries with internet traffic.